The present disclosure relates to the field of stringed musical instruments, and more particularly to bridges for stringed musical instruments.
It is common for a stringed musical instrument such as a guitar to have a bridge separating a playing zone of the musical strings from a connection zone of the strings. The ends of the strings are held securely in the connection zone, while the playing zone is the portion of the instrument in which vibration of the strings makes music. In conventional guitars, a base or ball of a musical string is immovably secured at a flange or other connector, and the string is pulled over a bridge member, which separates the string into the playing zone and a connection zone. Over time, the musical string will stretch or contract, leading to the string possibly sliding over the bridge member. Friction forces may resist such sliding, resulting in string wear and/or inconsistent tuning.
Some guitars may secure the ball of the musical string to a string holder employing a constant tension device. Such constant tension devices may act to maintain a constant or near-constant tension in a musical string as it stretches or contracts. In such cases, the string moves as it stretches or contracts, and friction forces of the string sliding over the bridge can lessen the effectiveness of such constant tension devices, as well as causing excessive wear to the string.
Various approaches have been attempted to reduce friction in bridges. For example, some bridges may include low-friction coatings such as graphite. Another bridge design uses a rolling member as a string saddle, which rolling member rotates about an axle. Such designs can still suffer from excessive friction, and rolling saddles tend to suffer from decreased resonance and/or buzzing due to lateral movement of the rolling saddle when the string is plucked.
Additionally, in state-of-the-art electric guitars, bridge members are adjustable in a longitudinal direction in order to adjust the length of the string (known as intonation) and up and down to accommodate a user's preferred string height. Such adjustments are usually accomplished by screw-based systems. However, such systems also tend to decrease resonance.